iDishoom.com , the 1st citizen reporting & whistleblower news/views portal that was blocked recently and shall be back soon in a bold new avatar on a secured server provided by our supporters

(Yes!! we were hacked and blocked into as some vested interests who are being exposed did not want the citizens reporting & reading the truth. Sorry for the inconvenience and we shall be up again soon).

Dear Friends and Fellow Citizens,

Greetings from all of us at iDishoom.com

Gandhiji in his autobiography said that "The sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countryside and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within”-

Now If this line of reasoning is correct—and there is no reason to challenge it—how many papers in the country & the world would stand the test? Today when editorial space is sold and where ‘paid news’ conceals falsehood and propaganda, Gandhi’s advice that a newspaper is not meant to make money but is an instrument to serve the public, cannot be to the liking of those who have an eye on the balance sheet. They are not bothered with the indignation of people over the projection of celebrities and models as icons of society. In 2003, the founders of iCONGO conceptualised and created the Anti Page 3 campaign (http://www.financialexpress.com/news/actionaid-awakening-the-pg-3-consciousness/77376/1) based on this preamble and discussion. This campaign sparked off debates amongst people in the media, academia and civil society about trivialization and conspicuous commercialization of media. Today’s’ media is bastardised and is works only to serve the advertiser, the glitterati and the rich & famous. Today’s media is absolutely commercial and the promoters have sold their soul to the devil. Instead of service to the people by given them the truth, they hide the truth which has became very apparent with the Radia tapes in 2010.

Thus was born iDishoom.com the 1st citizen reporting & whistleblower news/views portal based debates. iDishoom.com (the word is a sound mnemonic for a hard hitting punch in Indian Movies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishoom) was conceptualised in 2004 as a fortnightly magazine called BACKPAGES, (much before Wikileaks or the Radia tapes came to the fore) and launched at Midnight on 15th August 2007, our 60th Independence day. iDishoom.com is not about any one person leading the change or just the founders and few reporters writing or whistle blowing, but about transferring the power to all the citizens to write against wrongs . We believe that to safeguard the principles of democracy every citizen needs to be whistleblower. We believe that every citizen has a right and responsibility to KNOW THE TRUTH no matter what it takes. iDishoom.com is a nonprofit, public interest media initiative powered by investigative journalism & citizen reporting. We are not driven by advertising or commercial interest and the founding principle is to steer away from commercialisation. Citizens and the welfare of the people is the core of our being and we have from the very beginning resisted funding from venture capitalists and advertisers as we do not wish our reports to be controlled or governed by any vested interests. iDishoom.com has taken no funding from any party/ person till date and has only taken support through time, involvement and efforts from various citizens and some organisations which include UNODC, GTZ, EU, PPI, NNFI, Swiss Development Corporation who we have on board as charter sponsors. Cranberry Communications and Alayga have been providing pro bono tech support for the past few years and continue doing son. However we reserve the right to even speak against any wrong doings by and of the people or organisations that are our supporters.

Citizen reporters @ iDishoom.com have blown the whistle and led exposes against organisations like Coca Cola, Vedanta, Amity, CSIR and various others. The importance of citizen reporters & whistleblowers cannot be overstated. They are the public’s best protectors against waste, fraud and abuse. Our citizen reporters & whistleblowers come from all walks of life and every imaginable occupation. But they all share a similar conviction that government, business, Media, NGOs and other sectors must serve the people – not the other way around. And all our citizen reporters & whistleblowers, usually after considerable soul-searching – have found the inner strength to stand up, speak out, and push back when government and other sectors violates the public trust. A democratic government can only function in the public interest if it operates with transparency and is held fully accountable to the people. As citizens, we can and should demand nothing less – that our government should work for us. Without transparency, the special interests hijack government agencies and run them in the service of private, parochial profits. We have seen this happen again and again under the current administration, and no trend is more corrosive to democracy. Yes Democracy needs an open and accountable Government which is responsive to the people rather than to a few vested interests. iDishoom.com empowers citizens to participate in the process of governance and to be heard as a collective voice in a democracy. As a part of our new launch plans for the bold new avatar, we are planning to open the gates and have more citizen editors and reporters on board and if you think you have something to say and want to reach out to over 3.5 million subscribers read the code and write in to us now.

So come join the movement and let us keep the faith that a better world is possible if we all come together to reclaim and preserve democracy which means people power. At iDishoom.com we promise to work relentlessly for public interest & advocacy. Here truth is paramount & always authenticated prior to publishing. Once authenticated the report goes up without any cuts as the truth shall triumph and truth shall always be above all else. Because you deserve the truth, we all have a right to know the truth and nothing by the truth. So keep reading and hitting hard with your reports/ views and let us go “Dishoom Dishoom” (Punch em with hard talk by using your pen, keyboard and mouse to write every wrong) and be heard as the collective voice of citizen action.

In solidarity

Team iDishoom.com

Trivia about iDishoom.com

iDishoom.com was originally launched as dishoooom.com and was changed to iDishoom in 2009 as people were confused with the 4 O’s

iDishoom.com has led & partnered several campaigns and movements over the past 3 years.

iDishoom.com has various eminent citizens as contributors & readers and our global advisory council includes legendary candid & fearless whistle blowers like Prof Charles Mercieca and Prof. Noam Chomsky.

iDishoom.com has no paid employees and is managed purely by volunteers.

iDishoom.com reports have been included in journals at University of Peace and other journals at esteemed institutes

iDishoom.com stands for candid, courageous and committed public interest & advocacy journalism

iDishoom.com has videos on various issues that affect teach & every citizen across the globe. One of the videos on the manipulation of genetic food became a bone of contention for the company in concern. Officials from the company reached out to us to remove the video as too many people were watching it and getting influenced by it. They threatened legal action and then also offered money. We told them to go ahead and file a case as the video would stay and not be removed as it was posted by a citizen reporter and was a genuine case.

iDishoom.com founder wrote a hard hitting piece on the Shiv Sena family based on little know truths about Bal Thackeray and members of the Thackeray family. After this we had abuses being posted in comments by Sainiks followed by threatening calls to the founders. The blog stays.

iDishoom.com exposes have led to further action against the perpetrators in question and we are glad that companies like Vedanta now have a stay order on their University and the land they had usurped, Monsanto is stuck with their GM business plans as the public pressure on Government has begun, Amity University promoters have a Interpol red corner alert on them, Coca Cola has a global outcry against their stealing water and recently Shekhar Kapoor the movie Director has also started micro blogging against them.

iDishoom.com is soon creating a hip new movement “HallaBolo- The street fight where” by using 2 weapons of micro change each & every citizens shall have power to fight corruption and all other wrongs in society. “HallaBolo which means – raise your voice” is our tribute to our Unsung hero & youth icon Safdar Hashmi who fought corruption with street plays, poems and speeches.